Monday, June 29, 2009

The Student Leadership Project (or SLP), the 8 year Lilly Endowment-funded partnership of Young Life and Fuller Seminary. 37 high school rising seniors from across the country, hand-picked, personally chosen and nominated for leadership gifts and calling.

Monday, Day EightAs we look to wrap up our SLP 09 experience, our morning was filled with exploring what it means to follow Christ when we so often fail, get discouraged, and sometimes even slip away. Our search brought us into the book of Galatians, and especially the fifth chapter, where Paul reminds us that it is faith, or trust in God, that when coupled with waiting on the Spirit produces the “righteousness for which we hope.” Typically Christians focus on trying to “be righteous” by being good and worthy and consistent to the rules and norms we’ve been taught. It is so easy to live as though God were folding his arms waiting for us to “get with” the demands of the Gospel. But Paul turns that thinking upside down when we read Galatians 5:5. Our job is to trust and wait, his job is to change us into the men and women we are called to be. And the outcome? There is only one that concerns our Father: love (Galatians 5:6, “…the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love”).

With rapt attention and personal reflection, our student leaders and staff community wrestled with the specific areas or issues where we do not, or at least struggle with, trust Christ. This now defines the journey we are all on as leaders: hearing and heeding the call of the Holy Spirit who draws our attention to whatever would steal our abandoned trust in the lion of Judah, our king. Working through what I call “regular spiritual disciplines” as followers of Christ (worship, prayer, scripture, community, giving and justice) and other “proven” historical spiritual disciplines of the people of God, like fasting, contemplation, solitude, etc., we are more readily aligned with the Spirit who is at work within us.

Heady concepts for high school rising seniors, but our student leaders really wanted to know what it could mean to learn how to lean into the kingdom of God versus wallowing in the muck of guilt from the past or the bandage of failure and discouragement in the present. Our student leaders are preparing to go home, and to enter into a whole new way of living for Jesus Christ and serving him and his kingdom. Today they’ve gotten the teaching, reflected on the scripture, and this afternoon and evening now present the opportunity to work through it all in community.

The Student Leadership Project (or SLP), the 8 year Lilly Endowment-funded partnership of Young Life and Fuller Seminary. 37 high school rising seniors from across the country, hand-picked, personally chosen and nominated for leadership gifts and calling.

Sunday, Day SevenOn this beautiful Lord’s Day the SLP community offered a couple of hours to worship the God of wonder underneath the canopy of creation. Following personal devotional time and prayer triads, we gathered for corporate worship. We began with some singing and prayer then were led through a powerful lectio divina (lit. “divine reading”) by our gentle giant leader from Atlanta, the Young Life staff man known as simply G. After our spiritual exercise of listening to God through the scripture, six of our student leaders stood before us and gave us their impressions of the practice and how God had spoken to them through his word. We then sang, and were given a message by Angela Reeves from Chicago.

The afternoon was spent playing at the local lake, engaging in multiple levels of conversation and sharing, and heading back for dinner. At night Chap taught on friendship, dating and relationships from the content of the book each student received, Next Time I Fall in Love (http://wipfandstock.com/store/Next_Time_I_Fall_in_Love_How_to_Handle_Sex_Intimacy_and_Feelings_in_Dating_Relationships). We followed the message by having the guys and young women in separate groups to debrief, and then headed to the woods for a campfire and s’mores.

Lots of issues coming into focus for the student leaders, and the messages from the past week were coming together as we sought authenticity, honesty and community.

Friday, June 26, 2009

The Student Leadership Project (or SLP), the 8 year Lilly Endowment-funded partnership of Young Life and Fuller Seminary. 37 high school rising seniors from across the country, hand-picked, personally chosen and nominated for leadership gifts and calling.Saturday, Day Six

Being in the mountains brings a whole new experience for our student leaders. Many have not spent much or any time in the mountains, and with towering pines and beautiful vistas all around us, spending time learning about and then practicing some of the ancient practices of the people of God (sometimes called “spiritual disciplines”), a fresh appreciation for God and his creation is beginning to emerge.

Our kids are now moving beyond superficial relationships into true friendships based on intimacy and trust. It is a beautiful thing to see, especially up here in the mountains where we have a special place just to ourselves. Guys and girls talking about their lives and stories and faith journeys. Students from different family backgrounds, ethnic groups, and socioeconomic communities are moving well beyond the stereotypes they have been taught to seeing each other as brothers and sisters before God.

The Student Leadership Project (or SLP), the 8 year Lilly Endowment-funded partnership of Young Life and Fuller Seminary. 37 high school rising seniors from across the country, hand-picked, personally chosen and nominated for leadership gifts and calling.

Friday, Day FiveLast night we headed into the heart of Westwood, CA to attend the Los Angeles Film Festival to see a documentary of youth and community empowerment called After the Storm. John and Ed Priddy, committed Christian who are filmmakers and good friends of Fuller Seminary, were key producers of the making of this film about a New York actor and producer who wanted to make a difference for people in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina by using local kids to star in an off-Broadway musical. Our student leaders met a few of the kids from the documentary and then toured a bit of Westwood (along with the throngs there for a Michael Jackson vigil). Check the film out at: http://www.priddybrothers.com/films/afterthestorm/.

Today after devotions and prayer triads we spent time teaching and discussing spiritual gifts and calling, then hit In-N-Out on the way to a secluded section of Thousand Pines Camp near Lake Arrowhead. Tonight we are playing wild games then gathering for a Young Life club meeting with testimony and message from Shelley Sadler, Special Assistant to the President of Young Life.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Wednesday, Day ThreeAfter the first two days and three nights of teaching and learning and connecting, the SLP student leaders were ready for the most pivotal day of the experience – an immersion into both ends of the LA socioeconomic spectrum. We first gathered together on Fuller’s campus for directed quiet times and prayer triads. Then they were introduced to what can happen when faithful and committed people decide to act in the face of injustice and poverty. In this case, its Joe Colletti and Sandi “Mama” Romero, who a decade ago embarked on an “impossible” task to “take back” a neighborhood and park for the residents of downtown Los Angeles. In the mid-1980s MacArthur Park, for decades one of LA’s prime historical landmarks, had been invaded by violence, fear, hopeless and darkness. As followers of Christ called to bring hope and healing to the inner city, Joe and Sandi dove into the center of the park and built a community development infrastructure that has been so overwhelmingly successful that “Mamas Hot Tamales” has been featured on NBC News with Brian Williams. Our student leaders spent a few hours with Sandi, and heard her amazing story of vision, struggle, faithfulness and pride.

Following our time with Sandi, the students walked the primarily Latino community with $5 to spend as a group. They went from shop to shop, among street venders and the homeless, into flea markets and diners. Then we drove them the 5+ miles down Wilshire Blvd to the infamous Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Same street, two vastly different worlds. There they walked the shops and streets, and also had $5 to spend.

Our debrief is tonight, but from what we’ve heard so far they got the chance to see and experience close up poverty and exorbitant wealth, and in the process came face to face with power and injustice and race and prejudice. Tonight we get to share together how it felt as Christ’s followers to see what Sandi and Joe have done in the name of Christ, how the undocumented and poverty-riddled people of Los Angeles live, and what its like to try and be a kid, especially a kid of color, to walk into a high-end boutique and spend $5. If past years are any indication, today will be an important day in the life of each student leader.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The Student Leadership Project (or SLP), the 8 year Lilly Endowment-funded partnership of Young Life and Fuller Seminary. 37 high school rising seniors from across the country, hand-picked, personally chosen and nominated for leadership gifts and calling.

Tuesday, Day TwoThe way kids are coming together after just one full day has been among the most profound we’ve seen. This is a very sharp and committed group of student leaders. Today we had a quiet time on the life of Mary, took some fun pictures for the website, and went into teaching on how the invention and development of “adolescence” has done a number on today’s kids. Helping the student leaders to see that God has created, redeemed and called them to live as chosen representatives of his kingdom, to recognize, nurture and embrace the power that comes with that calling, and to live in authentic community is the journey they’ve been on for years. Identity, autonomy and belonging is the quest of every adolescent (and adult!), and it is the same journey of faith that Christ is leading them through.

This afternoon we are serving at an inner city LA multi-ethnic church and finishing up with dinner and a Young Life club.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Day One, the Student Leadership Project (or SLP), the 8 year Lilly Endowment-funded partnership of Young Life and Fuller Seminary. 37 high school rising seniors from across the country, hand-picked, personally chosen and nominated for leadership gifts and calling.

Monday, Day OneLast night was great: after a harrowing day of missed flights and delayed luggage, we gathered to learn names, play together and sing. After an initial "cabin time" with their assigned in room leaders and a good night sleep, we hit the ground running with quiet times notebooks and class on the "Deep Model" of ministry and discipleship (developed by me and Kara Powell) and Craig Detweiler's prep for our Hollywood excursion. After lunch and the Hollywood tour, we headed to the Rose Bowl for games and pictures, and finish at a pool party and our first Young Life club.

Today walls are dropping and the student leaders are settling in and making connections. A great start of SLP 09.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

"There are concerns all over the country that Barack Obama will destroy the Second Amendment. Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), a public interest group with high principles is working to prevent this destruction. People are always asking what they can do to protect the United States from Gun Grabbers. The answer? Support the relentless work of CCRKBA! Below, please find an important update on the Second Amendment Fight.

Conservative Action Alerts"

I responded to them:

Thanks for this... it is great to know that we are safe to keep our guns away from the "gun grabbers" you mention. Yep, let's ensure that children can get ready access, estranged husbands can get instant weapons at gun "shows" (an appropriate title for the experience, right fellas?), criminals can get automatics, and that psychologically unstable people can always find a way to "protect their freedom" by blowing away their neighbors, colleagues, or local police.

Certainly, you all are correct, all those who could even imagine the possibility of even slight or minor reasonable limits on the immense proliferation of every type of weapon are out to "destroy the Second Amendment"! I love this logic, because it is based in neither fact nor reality. It is entirely based on raw, unfiltered, intellectually uncluttered bias, prejudice and tunnel vision.

Please count me in. I am with you. Next they'll want to take away the right to exclude people we don't like, or understand, or even look like from our lives, especially in places like schools and restaurants. Wouldn't America be great if we could only keep it pure for us?

About Me

I think, muse, speak and write, and teach some classes to people that want to follow Christ and change the world.
Dee, a therapists' therapist who lets horses do her work, has changed everything - I am who I am because of how she has loved me. Same goes for Katie, Rob, and Chap - our pals who will never stop teaching us.
Check out our HURT and ParenTeen seminars at http://parenteen.com
Like my friend and mentor Mike Yaconelli, regardless of misunderstandings or peril, when all is said and done I want to fall before the King and shout, "what a ride!"